BOSS – Bharat Operating System

India always needed our own Operating System which can work in our own Indigenous environment and cater to the needs of our own users. For example Hindi is very widely used in India, particularly in the North where the Computer usage is growing. The large portion of our Indian literature is available in Hindi and PC users are Indian. A Customized OS for Indian needs was long awaited and has now been fulfilled by CDAC who have come up with a Indian or Bharat Operating System based on Linux and Open Office. The Free Indian Operating System has many other inbuilt Tools like Email Clients, Browsers etc, which are available in a Single Install. Now we hope that some how the Indian users can get a distance from the Microsoft dependent Technology Solutions and can start a fresh way of using PC with Indian OS or BHARAT OPERATING SYSTEM – BOSS. Thank you CDAC.

BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) derived from Debian for enhancing the use of Free/ Open Source Software throughout India. BOSSGNU/Linux – a key deliverable of NRCFOSS has upgraded from Entry level server to advanced server. It supports Intel and AMD x86/x86-64 architecture. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server has unique features such as Web server, proxy server, Database server, Mail server, Network server, File and Print server, SMS server, LDAP server. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server is comprised with administration tool such as webmin which is a web based interface, Gadmin, PHP myadmin, PHP LDAP admin, PG admin.

BOSS GNU/Linux Version 3.0 is coupled with GNOME and KDE Desktop Environment with wide Indian language support & packages, relevant for use in the Government domain. Currently BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop is available in almost all the Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively.

The accessibility of BOSS Linux will have a constructive impact on the digital divide in India as more people can now have access to software in their local language to use the Internet and other information and communications technology (ICT) facilities. Community Information centers (CIC’s) and internet cafes will also benefit from BOSS GNU/Linux as this software can be utilized to power these outlets and is affordable and easy to install, use and support.